NOW IN HIS MID-FORTIES, a university graduate with computer
skills, Osama bin Laden lives with his four wives and some fifteen children
in a small cave in eastern Afghanistan. They have no running water and only
a rudimentary heating system against the extreme cold of winter. Bin Laden is
always on guard against assassins, commando raids, and air strikes. Had he followed
the path chosen for him by his father, bin Laden could have been a respected
building contractor in Saudi Arabia and a billionaire in his own right. Instead
he freely elected to abandon the life of affluence and commit himself to waging
a jihad under extremely harsh conditions.

Osama bin Laden is not the only Islamist who has abandoned a good career and
comfortable lifestyle in order to wage a jihad. Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri -- bin
Laden's right-hand man -- now in his late forties, could have been one of Egypt's
leading pediatricians but gave up a promising career and affluence to fight
the Egyptian government. He then refused political asylum in Western Europe
(with a generous stipend) and ended up living in eastern Afghanistan not far
from bin Laden.

Although bin Laden and Zawahiri are the most notorious Islamist terrorists,
there are hundreds like them. These dedicated commanders in turn lead thousands
of terrorists in a relentless and uncompromising holy war against the United
States and the West as a whole. The bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania in 1998 were the latest but by far not the last shots in this rapidly
escalating war of terrorism. What makes these individuals -- the leaders and
symbols of the new Islamist upsurge -- commit themselves to this kind of war?

The rise of the new radical Islamist elite is a recent phenomenon in the developing
world. These leaders, from the affluent and privileged segment of society, are
highly educated and relatively Westernized. They are not the underprivileged,
impoverished, and embittered isolates who usually constitute the pool that breeds
terrorists and radicals. These Islamist terrorist leaders are different from
the typical European middle-class revolutionaries and terrorists -- from the
anarchists of the nineteenth century to the Communist revolutionaries of the
late twentieth century -- because the Islamists have become popular leaders
of the underprivileged masses, while the European terrorists remained isolated
from a generally hostile population. Only Ernesto "Che" Guevara --
the Argentinian doctor turned revolutionary fighter of the early 1960s -- came
close to being the kind of populist leader these Islamists are.

To understand these Islamist leaders -- particularly Osama bin Laden -- one
needs to understand their break with their past, their motivation, the fire
in their veins, and the depth of their hatred of the United States and what
it stands for.

OSAMA BIN LADEN, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and their compatriots, mostly Saudis and
Egyptians, are the product of the tumultuous 1970s and 1980s. Their entire lives,
from their early years up until the time they rejected a luxurious lifestyle
and embraced radicalism and militancy, were strongly influenced by key events
unfolding in the Middle East -- most importantly, the Arab prosperity and identity
crisis that accompanied the oil boom in the 1970s, the triumph of revolutionary
Islam in Iran, and the rallying cry of the jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Osama bin Muhammad bin Laden was born in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
probably in 1957. At the time his father, Muhammad bin Laden, was a small-time
builder and contractor who had arrived from Yemen in search of employment. Osama
was one of numerous siblings -- his father had more than fifty children from
several wives. Muhammad bin Laden was conscientious about education and advancement
in life and tried to provide his children with proper schooling. During the
1960s the family moved to the Hijaz, western Saudi Arabia, and ultimately settled
in Al-Medina Al-Munawwara. Osama received most of his formal education in the
schools of Medina and later Jedda, Saudi Arabia's main commercial port on the
Red Sea.

The oil boom of the 1970s changed Muhammad bin Laden's fortunes. The development
boom in the Hijaz brought him in direct contact with the Saudi elite, and he
soon developed a special relationship with the upper-most echelons of the House
of al-Saud as both a superior builder and the provider of discreet services,
such as the laundering of payments to "causes." His contacts at the
top enabled Muhammad bin Laden to expand his business into one of the biggest
construction companies in the entire Middle East -- the Bin Laden Corporation.
The special status of the bin Laden company was established when the House of
al-Saud contracted with it to refurbish and rebuild the two holy mosques in
Mecca and Medina. During the 1970s, the bin Laden company was involved in the
construction of roads, buildings, mosques, airports, and the entire infrastructure
of many of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.

Osama was destined to follow in his father's footsteps. He went to high school
in Jedda and then studied management and economics at King Abdul Aziz University
in Jedda, one of Saudi Arabia's best schools. His father promised him he would
be put in charge of his own company, which would enjoy the bin Ladens' direct
access to the Court to gain extremely profitable contracts.

Osama bin Laden started the 1970s as did many other sons of the affluent and
well-connected -- breaking the strict Muslim lifestyle in Saudi Arabia with
sojourns in cosmopolitan Beirut. While in high school and college Osama visited
Beirut often, frequenting flashy nightclubs, casinos, and bars. He was a drinker
and womanizer, which often got him into bar brawls.

Ultimately, however, Osama bin Laden was not an ordinary Saudi youth having
a good time in Beirut. In 1973 Muhammad bin Laden was deeply affected spiritually
when he rebuilt and refurbished the two holy mosques, and these changes gradually
affected Osama. Even while he was still taking brief trips to Beirut, he began
showing interest in Islam. He started reading Islamic literature and soon began
his interaction with local Islamists. In 1975 the outbreak of the Lebanese civil
war prevented further visits to Beirut. The Saudi Islamists claimed that the
agony of the Lebanese was a punishment from God for their sins and destructive
influence on young Muslims. Osama bin Laden was strongly influenced by these
arguments.

Excerpted from Bin Laden. Copyright 2001 by Yossef Bodansky. Excerpted
by permission of Prima Publishing/Random House. All rights reserved. No part
of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing
from the publisher.